Different Strokes
The sin for which old Yahweh leveled Sodom,
Though scholars, on this point, may disagree,
Is penetrating someone else’s bottom,
And so today we call it sodomy.
But what, then, should we think about Gomorra,
Which perished in that same destructive wave?
Did people there, complicit with Aurora,
By early light with children misbehave?
Or did they simply fail to offer strangers
Some supper and a bed in which to sleep?
A thousand years, and maybe more, ere mangers
Became the sacred image that we keep
In mind at Christmastime, a desert culture,
Hard-pressed to guarantee their own survival
And not sustain the jackal and the vulture,
Recorded what is now the Hebrew Bible.
C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden. Hundreds of his poems have appeared in scores of print and electronic journals out of North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Australia and India. His collection, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder was published in 2013 by White Violet Press.
C.B.
Somewhat of a scramble
Results in a ramble
From Sodom/Gomorrah
As found in the Torah
Then looks at both tribal
And scribal traditions
With local conditions
That led to the Bible.
While hosting a stranger
Once laid in a manger.
To fit all this into
Both rhythm and rhyme
Earns kudos for you.
Thanks, I had a good time.
I quite enjoyed your rejoinder, James. It was a delicious omelet.
This is a playful riff on the Sodom and Gomorrah legend. The last six lines of this poem are one complete sentence — and that takes expert skill in enjambment.
The rhyme of Gomorra with “complicit with Aurora” is a brilliant one. Combining the goddess of Dawn with early morning misbehavior is the kind of unexpected fusion that poets are traditionally expected to perform.
For me, Joseph, the main benefit of enjambment is that it allows the use of rhyme words that do not correspond with end-stopped phrases or ideas, and this means, of course, that there are more available rhyme possibilities, which makes things easier. I think it is likely that at some period of time Yahweh and Aurora were contemporaneous, though separated geographically.
Dear Mr Anderson,
lovely image BTW
>Did people there, complicit with Aurora,
By early light with children misbehave?
Or did they simply fail to offer strangers
Some supper and a bed in which to sleep?
C.s Lewis’s comment is here relevant..
He quotes an earlier writer Law who observed that it does not matter to the man who died in the desert why he failed to take the right road to the oasis.
And we have further elucidation on this from St Faustina’s Diary;
“Write; I am Thrice Holy, and I detest the smallest sin. I cannot love a soul which is stained with sin; but when it repents, there is no limit to My generosity toward it. My mercy embraces and justifies it. With My mercy, I pursue sinners along all their paths, and My Heart rejoices when they return to Me. I forget the bitterness with which they fed My Heart and rejoice at their return” (St Faustina’s Diary, 1728).
Its not so much “different strokes..” but that He is patient.
The Creator does not want a single one of us to perish;
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full..This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
John 15:9-17
https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/john-15-9-17-2026/
but in the end, the time of Mercy is replaced by the time of Justice.
He’s not coming after us.
He’s coming after what seperates us from Him.
But if we cling to it, whatever it is,
we will be burned away along with it.
The Lord is clear that this holds for all of us whether or not we attend Church.
Its just that receiving the Sacraments (with a genuine love of God and neighbour of course) brings us ever closer to Him
and away from the cliff on the edge of the pit.
warmest regards,
Karen
*************************
C.S. Lewis might be correct in his opinion, but most of us are interested in what it was that led to the destruction of these places. even if the legend is pure myth. Dante certainly thought that there are degrees of wickedness.
The other sources you noted are also very interesting. No sane entity would want his children to perish, and, really, God’s mercy is an offer we can’t refuse, especially if we anticipate justice.
I enjoyed this poem and the VERY interesting responses. I guess
envy would be in the same category.
I, too, jd, liked the responses a lot, but I’m not sure where you were headed with “envy.” “Thou shalt not covet,” for me, is not a threat, but a prescription for mental health.
I’m laughing out loud, C.B. Your rhyming is hilarious!
As long as you are laughing with me, Cynthia.
No matter how many times I re-read it, that first stanza cracks me up.
If I had a stanza like that in front of me, Cheryl, I would likely keep reading it until my diaphragm gave out. This is why I try not to start eating candy — I can’t stop.
C.B., I just love the way “Different Strokes” (great title!) uses humor creatively and profoundly to expose just how much our moral rhetoric lies in selective reading and speculation. I believe interpretation says as much about the reader as it does about the texts, which is why I’m so darn skeptical of religious doctrine. Thank you for a poem that entertains on many levels. You had me laughing, marvelling at your poetic skills, and thinking… a lot. Thank you!
Well shucks, Ma’am, I’m plumb tickled. Are you bracing for an ice storm in your neck of the woods? If “darn” weren’t so deeply embedded in the American vernacular, I might accuse you of taboo deformation (a term I learned in my linguistic classes at Harvard Extension).
Taboo deformations are a fascinating subject. Here are a few basic ones:
“Heck!” = Hell
“Shoot!” = Shit
“Jiminy Cricket!” = Jesus Christ
We even have reconstructed a few from Proto-Indo-European. Their word for the dangerous animal “wolf” was WLKWOS, and that got twisted into all sorts of weird shapes by speakers who were afraid to mention the real word.
Similar to “wolf” in this regard is “bear” (“harktos” in PEI). The dramatic languages circumlocute it as “the brown one” and the Slavic languages as “honey eater.”
And don’t forget “sugar,” “dadgum” and “frigging.” I once met an old couple whose favorite expletive was “Foot!”
C.B., I just love your “taboo deformations” observation and Joe, I love your list. You took me straight back to my childhood with that one. I remember calling my brother a “basket” (bastard) and living to regret it. If only I’d known “basket” was a taboo deformation back then – I’d have avoided it like the plague. I also got into trouble for “blighter” (bugger). I didn’t even know what “bugger” meant at the time. I only knew the word because my father often called my brother a little bugger. Oh, the hypocrisy!
We are just emerging from “Winter Storm Fern” and I am thankful to see sunlight. To be fair, we only got down to around 23 degrees Fahrenheit on the south coastal plains. I’ve felt far worse in the UK… but I was bothered by this. Swapping my shorts and tee shirt for a woollen jumper doesn’t feel good and that bitter chill in the air sent a frisson of fear down my spine – the proof that I am now fully assimilated.
Wow!!! This poem really gets back to basics, CB… I agree that the problem is simply not caring and pride… I guess success can too easily bring the excess.
“Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.“ – Ezekiel to Jerusalem
Now this is “take no prisoners” poetry! Damn!
There are only a few good reasons for taking prisoners, Mike: to use as exchanges for compatriots taken by the enemy, to mete justice (as one sees it) to enemy combatants, and for bragging rights. Lack of solicitude, and pride, are surely things that will destroy a kingdom. Let us not declare victory too soon.
One more big reason, Kip — to interrogate them for information. That’s what my dad did in World War II.
Of course, Joseph. I didn’t think of that.
A penetrating piece of verse. Very entertaining, CD.
Heh-heh. We do the best we can, Paul.
Though couched in humor, your poem tackles a popular theological notion among liberal clergy: that it was not sexual sin, but lack of hospitality that brought destruction on the cities. You ascribe the greater sin to Gomorra. I read an interesting piece lately hypothesizing that the final straw to all the sodomy was the attempted sodomy of angels, no less.
Liberal clergy live in a dream world that allows them to construe any scriptural text in whatever manner they like. The Sodom and Gomorrah legend is clearly about specific sexual sins that the composers of the text found abhorrent.
An important facet of left-liberal thinking is the desire to “have it all.” This means that if you are a left-liberal priest or minister you are compelled to read certain biblical stories in utterly bizarre and counterintuitive ways, and to fiercely defend your interpretations as “up-to-date” and “creative” and “unburdened by what has been.”
At least the 19th-century Unitarians were honest. They simply went through the Bible and excised anything that they didn’t like, or were uncomfortable with.
There is a very interesting short story, Adam, by Samuel Delaney titled “Aye, and Gomorra”. You can read it here:
https://future-lives.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/delany_aye_and_gomorrah.pdf
How does one even attempt to sodomize an Angel? I suppose that first an angel must actually be present.